A NEW NAM! AND EXPANDED AUTHORITY FOR THI COMMITTEE 



715 



what a majority of the committee wanted on subcommittee juris- 

 dictions, and at the same time he decided to exercise his chairman's 

 prerogative to make staff decisions himself. Neither of these decisions 

 were announced, but they became apparent as events unfolded. 



For the first time, the 1974 reform amendments required the 

 Democrats and Republicans to have their presession caucuses in 

 December of each election year. Committee assignments were made in 

 December, but subcommittee chairmen were selected in January. 

 To resolve a very heated argument over jurisdictions, Teague decided 

 he would invite those majority members who would be returning 

 to the committee in 1975 to take a boat trip on the Potomac River. 



The night before the Democratic caucus assembled in December 

 1974, was rainy and squally, so the boat did not move from the dock 

 for awhile. It was an ideal craft for discussions; nobody could escape. 

 Teague borrowed the boat from LTV Corp., announcing that he 

 wanted to get the Members away from the Capitol so they wouldn't 

 be interrupted by telephone calls. Before the boat had left the dock, 

 the phone rang and Speaker Albert was on the line for Teague. 



For a long period into the evening, very little was done except to 

 drink and socialize. By the time the Members lined up at the galley to 

 enjoy a tasty plate of food, almost everbody was in a high mood. 

 Still no shop-talk. Swigert and Wilson, the only non-Members who 

 went along, were enigmatic. Swigert had done his job by circulating 

 in advance a detailed memorandum on the various options, with this 

 conclusion: "The staff makes no recommendations." Teague was 

 equally noncommittal. 



Finally, after a leisurely dinner and more drinks, Teague assembled 

 the group in the cabin. It was not necessary to deliver a pep talk on 

 the challenging new responsibilities facing the committee in 1975: 

 Everybody appreciated this already. But Members were eager to detect 

 if there were some signal from Teague as to how he preferred to organize 

 the committee, so they could act or react. Swigert gave a recap of the 

 memorandum he had already circulated on the options. Then Teague 

 went around the circle, asking each Member (by seniority) to give his 

 views on how the jurisdictions of the subcommittees should be 

 arranged. 



MCCORMACK ADVOCATES ONE ENERGY SUBCOMMITTEE 



Unquestionably, the most articulate and best-structured case was 

 presented by McCormack. He strongly urged that energy had been 

 split up too long, and now that the committee had a rare opportunity 

 to pull it together, the chance should not be muffed. To separate energy 

 research and development into two subcommittees would merely 



